Saint Gregory Palamas: On the Divine and Deifying

Communion, or On the Divine and Supernatural

1. Let us therefore set forth what both sides openly state, and which seems to
contain some cause of difficulty. Our opponents say: "If you call the grace
bestowed upon the saints uncreated merely because they partake of God,
whom all creation partakes of—for He extends to all, giving some
existence, and to others, besides existence, also sensory, rational, or
intellectual life—then something uncreated will be found in everything:
in one, existence; in another, life; and in yet another, beyond that, reason
and thought." We, in agreement with the saints, would consider them not
worthy of rebuttal—for in Christian dogmas, faith predominates over proof; but
for the sake of those led astray by these seemingly plausible arguments, we should
answer them: "If, dear ones, you call the grace that deifies the saints created
because all creation partakes of God, then everything will be glorified as
holy in your view, and you will idolize every creature; not only rational
beings—indeed, those among them who have become partakers of the
deifying gift of the Spirit—will be considered holy, but also the irrational
creatures, and beyond them, even those without souls. What would result
if one is granted a better existence and a better life than another? You
would see a distinction among your saints. Thus, a bee would be holier
than a fly, a lamb holier than a bee, other animals holier than the lamb,
and man holier than them all, even if he were Jezebel. Moreover: an ant

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would be holier than a mosquito, the latter holier than a sheep, or if you
prefer, a bull or an elephant, or any other animal, and again, man would
be holier than them, even if he were akin to Ahab. Such would be the
sanctity of one who, with his ridiculous teachings, pushes us to these
absurd discussions, though he is a clear adversary of Christ's Gospel."

2. For if the deifying gift of the Spirit is created and abides in the saints like some
natural state or imitation, as our assailant teaches everywhere, then the deified
saints do not transcend nature, are not born of God, are not Spirit as those born
of the Spirit are, are not one spirit with the Lord for they are joined to Him, and
Christ has not given only to believers in His name the power to become children
of God when He came to His own, and not just to His own but rather—if He is
indeed present in us by nature—He was with all pagans, and now is with the
wicked and the godless. Listen to what the God-like Maximus says, conversing
with Pyrrhus: "By divine command, Moses, David, and all who, by setting
aside human and carnal qualities, became vessels of divine action
walked." And elsewhere: "... as if the image had returned to its archetype
and acquired divine action, or rather, by deification became divine and
through the victorious grace of the Spirit enjoyed more fully the release
from what naturally exists and is conceived within it."

3. Thus, the deified do not merely improve their nature but acquire the divine
action itself, the Holy Spirit Himself; therefore, according to the words of the
great Basil, "when we consider His own dignity, we see Him with the Father
and the Son, but when we think of the grace active in the partakers, we say
He dwells in us." If He is present in the saints in the same way as in all creation,
and as God, He creates holiness in the saints according to your wise reflection, just
like other qualities in everything else, then what need is there for Christ and His

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coming? What need for Christ's baptism and the authority and power it grants?
What need for the second breath, the descent of the Spirit, and His indwelling?
For He was supposedly already in us, as in all. And God, it turns out, equally
creates and deifies. However, the great Basil wisely says: "If God equally creates
and begets, then Christ is our Creator and Father equally, for He is God,
and there would be no need for adoption by the Holy Spirit." "He has
raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph. 2:6-9). But you would fabricate
a deification achieved by mere acts of natural imitation, claiming that natural
imitation is the deifying gift and divine grace? "If anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9), and "the Spirit of God dwells in
you" (1 Cor. 3:16), and "all have been made to drink into one Spirit" (1
Cor. 12:13), and "he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1
Cor. 6:17), and Christ dwells in the hearts of the faithful through the Spirit, and
"having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is
the guarantee of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:13,14), and "by this we know
that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit"
(1 John 4:13), and "you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of adoption" (Rom. 8:15).

4. And do you call those who, through the utmost purity of heart, have clearly
seen and experienced the radiance of God's glory and received the Son, who came
with the Father to make His abode in them and to manifest Himself to them as
He promised, participants and contemplators of something created? What are you
saying? The Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of promise, the

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guarantee of our inheritance, the Spirit of adoption, the promise of the Spirit
which the Son received from the Father and gave to those believing in Him, the
Spirit poured out from God's Spirit on His servants and handmaidens according
to the prophet Joel—you imagine this to be created and consider it a natural
imitation, while you everywhere proclaim those who refrain from blaspheming
according to your doctrine as ungodly? Are you not ashamed before the apostle
who says, "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you" (1 Cor.
6:19), and also, "you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you" (1 Cor. 3:16)? Would he honor the dwelling place of a slave with
the name of a temple? If this is so in us as in all, then every irrational creature,
every wild beast, every creeping thing, not to mention each of the Hellenes
worshipping them, and every other idol would also be a temple of God. And the
apostle would vainly elevate believers and those who are well-praised for their faith
against this: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the
Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16), "unless indeed you are
disqualified" (2 Cor. 13:5).

5. But our opponent says: "You divide the Divine Spirit, calling the lower
uncreated, and you measure God, attributing to one saint a greater grace,
to another a lesser one, which moreover is not that likeness to God which
each achieves by imitation in his own measure, but something distinct
from it, coming from above, given, uncreated." Whom do you wish to
contradict in this way, us or the prophet? Rather, you contradict the God of the
prophets, who spoke through one of them, "I will pour out My Spirit on all
flesh" (Joel 2:28), and the apostle, speaking of "the distribution of the Holy
Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:11), and Dionysius, who wisely writes: "That to which all
strive, being like the One, is one, but although it remains always one and
unchangeable, not all partake of it in the same way, but to each, the

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divine scales distribute a portion according to his merit." Therefore, it is
not the Spirit that is weighed and measured, but rather He Himself measures what
partakes of Him, and apportions Himself to each according to his merit, in
accordance with His salvific justice. And it is not He that is divided, but we are
able to contain only a small portion of His boundless radiance.

6. Thus, it is written of Paul that he was in communion with the radiance of great
light for a brief time. And those who ascended with the Lord to the mountain saw
His glory "not in full, lest they die from the sight." The Spirit not only
remains undivided in the divided, but also unites those who partake of Him
according to their capacity as a unifying force, elevating them to the unity and
deifying simplicity of the unifying Father. Thus, the Spirit, as befits the Good,
proceeds and multiplies for the sake of uniting those He cares for, remaining in
His dwelling place by supernatural power. And since this outpouring, descent,
and procession is also a manifestation - "for to each is given," according to the
apostle, "the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Cor.
12:7) - will the Spirit, who determines the measure of the theophany for those
mystically encountering Him, be measured? And will He who is infinitely
superior to every manifestation and thought, never fully manifest and be
beneficial to all, be divided into higher and lower? Do you not understand,
know-it-alls, that what is manifested, or thought of, or received in communion is
not a part of God, so that God would not suffer division through us, but He is in
some way both manifested and not manifested, thought of and not thought of,
given in communion yet inaccessible for communion?

7. And since, according to the word of the great Dionysius, "deification is a

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deification is completed. Without union, likeness would not be sufficient for
deification. Moreover, I say, we need that likeness which comes from the doing
and keeping of God's commandments, and it is not achieved by mere natural
imitation but by the power of the Spirit, descending upon us from above in holy
baptism and ineffably uniting with those baptized. By it, those "who were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God" (John 1:13), as newborn infants, "may grow up into Him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ" (Eph. 4:13). For "never," says Dionysius,
"does anyone know or fulfill anything given by God who has not been
granted divine existence." Therefore, dear one, learn thoroughly, as it is said,
about the supernaturalness of deification: since nature does not give it its origin by
itself, how then can its completion be natural and created? And if in its beginning
it far exceeds natural imitation, how, upon completion, can it be natural
imitation? John, the son of Zechariah, baptizes with water only. Jesus, the Son of
God, baptizes with water and the Spirit. What is added? Only a name? By no
means. But the deifying grace and power itself, the Holy Spirit, not poured out
according to nature but descending by the inherent grace of sanctification. If it
were created, and by receiving from it we become partakers of something created,
how then would the Holy Spirit be uncreated?

8. "If by the communion of the Spirit," speaking in the words of the great
Athanasius, "we become partakers of the divine nature, then only a
madman could say that the Spirit has a created nature and not the
nature of the Son." If even Christ, the Son of God, baptized, like John, in the
created, and instilled created power and grace in the baptized, how could He have
been "declared," as Paul says, that is, definitely known, "to be the Son of God
with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from
the dead" (Rom. 1:4)? What power was revealed and showed Jesus to be the Son

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of God - was it created? And how could He then be recognized through it as God?
Do not tell me that it healed lepers, enlightened the blind, straightened the bent,
strengthened the paralyzed - for to pay attention to this first is characteristic of the
shortsightedness of the Pharisees - but consider that it first invisibly broke the
chains of sin, prepared a place for the Spirit of holiness, corrects and enlightens the
inner man, and through union with God resurrects the soul from the dead and
grants it life in God - divine and truly eternal life of God. For the resurrection of
the body is only a consequence of this resurrection, just as death initially followed
the death of the soul; and the death of the soul is its alienation from life in God.
This death is truly dreadful, and the bodily death that follows it is most desirable
when the former has occurred, and it is God's mercy, which, alas, many
condemned will be deprived of at the coming judgment. Such is the resurrection
awaiting those who did not use the talent of divine grace given by God for good - a
resurrection forever linked to that other death, as John revealed to us in
"Revelation," and worse than death. If thus some live immortally, though they
have died, while many others, living here, are dead, as the Lord of life and death
has shown, then there is indeed a death of the soul, although by nature the soul
remains immortal. How then will it live if it has been allotted a created life, and
while living it, is dead? Therefore, to be reborn to a better existence, it must
partake in uncreated life, not separating from the Spirit. Thus, Basil, having
experienced this, says: "And the life which the Spirit instills into another
hypostasis does not separate from Him, but He Himself has life in Himself,
and those who partake of Him live divinely, having acquired divine and
heavenly life."

9. Do you want to rightly understand that those who have been granted
deification acquire the Holy Spirit Himself not by nature but by uncreated
illumination and grace? Listen to what Dionysius says: "The aim of the

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hierarchy is to make those worshipping Him as similar to God as possible
and to unite with Him, making them divine likenesses, clear, untarnished
mirrors capable of receiving the rays of the Divine Primal Light." If what
all partake in is one, but distributed not uniformly but diversely, what prevents
both saints and non-saints from partaking of God, with the difference between
these communions being that one is uncreated, and the other created? As
Athanasius the Great, who said, "One God, the Father" (1 Cor. 8:6), the
beginning of all, according to the apostle's word, "and the Word from Him by
way of generation, and the Spirit from Him by way of procession," - if
anyone asked him why he calls only the Son and the Spirit true God and
inseparable from the Father, although all come from the Father, by the very
essence he would answer that it is due to the difference in being: for the Son and
the Spirit receive being from the Father - truly, as independent hypostases like the
radiance and ray from light, while everything else - as creations from the Creator, -
so we too will say that although all partake of God, in the partaking of the saints
we see the greatest distinction. For why, tell me, is the life of no creature, whether
partaking of divine life in a sensory, rational, or intellectual manner, called divine
or inspired, and none of them called Divine, or chosen by God, or God-bearing,
much less - God, unless it is among the deified? Those who by their nature live
only sensually - and some do not even live or feel at all - are in no way capable of
divine life, although they too partake of God.

10. See, that although there is the Divine in everything, and all partake of Him,
only in the saints does He dwell fully, and only they partake of Him fully? And
thus, it is true and correct, that just as there is one true God for us, although there
are many gods, and they are called so, and just as only one is truly called the Son of
God, for He is the only begotten Son, although there are many sons of God, and
they are called so, - so too, only some saints are called partakers of God and

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partakers of Christ, although many - indeed, all - partake of God "For it is
impossible," says Paul, "for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit..."
(Heb. 6:4) as if they had not partaken before. And the Lord promises to come
and make His abode with those who love Him and are loved by Him, as if He had
not been with them or lived in them before. Therefore, it was necessary for the
deified to become very like God, and for those adopted to become like the Son by
nature. As there is one God who is being, living, holy, good, "who alone has
immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light" (1 Tim. 6:16), although
many exist, live, are holy and good, and immortal, and dwell in light and in the
land of the living, - so too, only some saints are partakers of God, although all
partake of Him.

11. Doesn't it seem to you that such a great distinction is sufficient for us to
consider the communion of those living the Divine life as uncreated, even if Paul
had not said, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20)? Even if Maximus had not said again about
Paul and those like him: "They bear within themselves not a temporary life,
which has a beginning and an end, but the Divine and eternal life of the
indwelling Word"? And also: "The Divine and incomprehensible life, even
if it allows those partaking of it by grace to taste it, does not allow it to be
comprehended; for it always remains incomprehensible, even in the
communion of those tasting it, because being ungenerated by nature, it
possesses boundlessness." And also: "Granting ungenerated deification as a
reward to those obedient to Him"; this ungenerated deification is called "an
illumination hypostatized in form, which does not have generation but
an incomprehensible manifestation in the worthy."

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12. And the great Athanasius says: "That we are called partakers of Christ
and partakers of God is shown by our anointing and sealing, which does
not have the nature of the born." And also: "The philanthropy of God is
also in that He, who was the creator for some, becomes their Father by
grace - when created humans receive 'into their hearts the Spirit of His
Son, crying out, "Abba, Father!"' (Gal. 4:6). Otherwise, as creatures by nature,
they would not have become sons if they had not received the Spirit of Him who is
by nature the Existing and True One. Therefore, "'the Word became flesh'
(John 1:14) so that human nature could become capable of receiving
Divinity." And also: "As the Spirit and power of the Most High were
promised to the apostles, so they were to the Virgin." And the great Basil says:
"To become a partaker of the Holy Spirit's grace of Christ, to be called a
child of light, to partake of eternal glory." And also: "That which the Holy
Spirit has imparted eternal motion to has become a holy creature. By the
indwelling of the Spirit, man has received the dignity of a prophet,
apostle, angel, god, having been previously dust and earth." And also: "It is
not by receiving servitude that a servant becomes a son, nor by servile
participation that one gains the freedom to call God Father." And also:
"Creatures made in His image partake of the Creator, and thus are born
of the Spirit. For all that is created would be pitiful compared to God and
by its created nature deprived of the Creator's glory if it did not partake
of Divinity. It would be unworthy to say of God that He neglects His
creation, as if it were completely devoid of Him and abandoned by Him.
However, neither is creation so pitiful, nor God so powerless, that holy
bestowal would not be sent down to creatures." And also: "The creation
has been renewed, having received from the Spirit, from which it had
become decayed; for this current renewal and harmony must correspond
to the original newness. Therefore, the one who sealed with His breath is

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not someone other than the one who originally breathed, but the same One
by whom God gave breath - then with the soul, now into the soul." And the
Golden-Mouthed Father, extolling the grace of Divine Baptism, says: "Then
'man became a living soul'" (Gen. 2:7), but now 'a life-giving spirit' (1 Cor.
15:45). And the difference is great: "for the soul does not impart life to
another, but the spirit not only lives itself but also imparts life to others.
Thus, the apostles raised the dead."

13. This is expounded more broadly by the divine Cyril, refuting those who claim
that the Divine breath became the soul of man. Concluding his speech, he says:
"What He breathed is thought to be wholly His own, or rather, of His
essence. Did the Spirit proceeding from God descend into the nature of the
soul? Consequently, the living creature received a soul" - he says - "by the
ineffable power of God and through likeness to Him, it became, as far as
possible by nature, good, righteous, and capable of all virtue. It was
sanctified, having become a partaker of the Divine Spirit, of which it was
deprived through sin." What can those who assert that the deifying gift of the
Spirit is created and a natural imitation, rather than Divine, ineffable, and
ineffably indwelling action, say to this? And Saint Maximus says: "We experience
deification as something beyond nature, but we do not accomplish it." And
also: "Nothing can accomplish deification by nature."

14. However, let us return to where we digressed and continue our speech in
order. Nothing now prevents us from saying that just as "no one is good but
One, that is, God" (Matt. 19:17), so too, nothing partakes of God except the
good angels and those among humans who have mysteriously received back into
their soul the Divine breath, which departed from Adam at the beginning due to
the violation of God's command. I would gladly ask those who deny this idea:

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"Isn't it entirely necessary that what partakes of another must have
existed before this partaking and be initially something in itself?
However, beings that partake of God, living through sensory, rational, or
intellectual means, whatever sense - or reason and intellect - they have
been allotted, have they not already partaken of God? Someone might say
they only had existence to which these capabilities were added? But even
existence they have by partaking of God. It is clear, therefore, that they do
not partake of God fully but in the way it is said of God's creatures, that
they partake of His creative energy and power - like any product,
containing within themselves a vague reflection of the craftsman's design,
but entirely without participation in his active thought."

15. The saints, however, having initially a created nature, add to it a supernatural
and Divine participation - not like a craft is added to something made according to
its rules, but as one perceives and assimilates a skill, "always present, manifested
in action when needed" - in the diversity of the gifts of the Spirit. And as the
great Basil says, just as the word is in us - sometimes in our heart when "the Spirit
bears witness with our spirit" (Rom. 8:16) and when He "cries out in our
hearts, 'Abba, Father!'" (Gal. 4:6), sometimes expressed through the tongue -
"for it is not you who speak," according to the words of wisdom teaching
obedience, "but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you" (Matt. 10:20).
But, as the apostle says, regarding the distribution of gifts, He should be thought
of as a whole in parts. Therefore, "we are members of one another" (Eph.
4:25). Moreover, "as the power of sight in a healthy eye, so is the action of
the Spirit in a cleansed soul." Hence, he also calls the radiance proceeding
from the Spirit an effusion. "As something lying next to something
brightly colored," - he says - "and itself colored by the surrounding glow, so
one who has clearly seen the Spirit is transformed by His glory and

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enlightened, as if illuminated by some light emanating from His truth."
And Gregory, named for his theology, listing what awaited his deceased sister
Gorgonia, says, addressing her: "I know for certain: what you now dwell in is
immeasurably better and much more precious than what is seen bodily -
the praise of the festal celebrators, the dance of angels, the heavenly host,
the contemplation of glory, the purest and most perfect radiance of
another, higher Trinity, shining with the full light of Divinity upon our
souls," - then, continuing his speech, he briefly summarizes: "You partake of
everything that was given to you on earth in the form of effusions,
according to the sincerity of your aspiration towards it." Thus, the nature
of effusion is such that it is imparted without being separated from the one
imparting, and while imparting, it does not suffer any diminution; and how could
light, emitting a ray, or a ray, producing radiance, experience anything like this?

16. Please, do not bring up the effusions of matter, but as much as possible,
consider the way the spirit is bestowed upon the saints, purifying this term from
any inappropriate meaning. How can He ineffably shine in all the saints in an
evident manner? "As rays of the sun," says the great Basil, "make the cloud
glow and shine, giving it the appearance of gold." Imagine, please, that such
clouds, the garments of light, are capable of feeling this Divine light and have
become like eyes through participation in this light; then they become almost
equal to light and see in such light. In the same way, the saints, becoming inspired
and godlike, fully partake of God. Not only do they partake, but they also impart.
Not only can they judge what has already come to pass, but they also know
something of what has not yet been brought out of non-existence. Not only do
they live, but they also give life, which is not possible for created power. However,
after expounding the truth, it is necessary to listen again to the preachers of truth,

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affirming that only the saints partake of God; for we always present them as
witnesses of the truth.

17. Thus, the great Basil says: "Having cleansed oneself from the shame that
sin has stained with, and returning to the natural beauty, as if restoring
the purity of the original image to the royal likeness - only thus can one
approach the Comforter." And also: "The Holy Spirit is inaccessible by
nature, containable by goodness; He fills all with power but is bestowed
only upon the worthy; He is not bestowed uniformly but measures His
action according to the degree of faith." And also: "How should one honor
what the world cannot contain but is seen only by the saints because of the
purity of their hearts, or what honor is due to Him?" And also: "The Lord,
having testified to the purity of life of His disciples through teaching,
grants them both vision and contemplation of the Spirit." And also: "It is
testified that those who have trampled the earthly and risen above it are
worthy of the gift of the Holy Spirit."

18. To illustrate the difference between communions for you in a vague analogy,
let us say that a clay pot partakes of fire, retaining traces of fire even after being
taken out of the kiln for use; for the reddish color, the appropriate dryness, and
the strength of the material come directly from the fire. When the moisture is
driven out of it and the fire consumes it, blackening it with heat, the yellowness of
the fire combines with the natural whiteness of the clay, and thus, from the mixed
yellow, white, and black on the surface of the fired mixture, a color emerges, and
the loose clay contracts, because within its pores are so constricted by the force of
the fire that it no longer absorbs water, which consists of thick particles.
Therefore, even when doused with water, it does not disintegrate, as it is not
wetted. And it is much lighter and warmer than the same amount of stone or

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earth, which, of course, it gained from the fire. Thus, the clay pot partakes of fire
even when it is already set out for use. It partakes of it when it lies in the burning
kiln and, being thoroughly fired, unites with the fire. But then it partakes not only
of the outcomes of the action but almost all the actions of the fire itself, not
yielding in heat or burning power. It can easily impart from the action it partakes
of to whatever approaches it, if it is capable of such partaking, although its nature
does not change and remains earth. Taken out of the kiln for use, the pot partakes
only of the outcomes of the fire's action, but no longer the actions themselves.

19. Now, please imagine, choosing what is suitable for our discussion from the
example of vessels, that natural life, existence, knowledge, and all similar things are
the outcomes of Divine actions, but not fully the actions themselves. The inspired
life and grace of those who exist and live in God in a supernatural way are indeed
Divine and supernatural action, by which the union of God with those worthy of
God is accomplished. For everything created - that which was brought out of
non-existence by the creative command - is also an outcome of Divine actions, but
not the actions themselves. When the Lord, according to His promise, makes His
abode with the Father in those worthy, what occurs in the god-bearers happens
not by creative command but by Divine union with God and the indwelling of
God, imparting by deifying force and grace from that which belongs to His nature
to those united with Him. Therefore, the saints partake not only of the outcomes
but also of the actions of God in a manner worthy of angels and angel-like; for in
angels, the great Basil sees the distinction from the Holy Spirit, "that sanctity
belongs to Him by nature, while they are sanctified by partaking."

20. Thus, the righteous will shine forth like the Lord shone on the mountain, and
their kingdom will not be created and entirely different but the same as His. Thus,
Christ once lived and spoke in Paul, although Paul also lived and spoke. Thus,

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Peter killed and gave life, although only God kills and gives life. Thus, James and
John, who ascended the mountain with Him, saw with their bodily eyes the
unwaning and perpetual light, which later illuminated Paul, blinding his vision
with the excess of radiance - for the fleshly nature cannot contain the force of this
light. Thus, Stephen from the earth looked into heaven, remaining in the body.
And through the touch of bodily hands, the Holy Spirit is given, imparting to one
approaching with sincere faith from the Divine action and grace, which through
him can be passed on to another, and through him to a third, and so on,
continuously spreading. O who can worthily sing of You, the Only-Begotten
Word of God, the power of Your coming to earth? For on Your Divine altar, not a
foreign, earthly fire is kindled, but in another sense, a foreign - heavenly fire,
preserved unfadingly by transmission, which You came to sow on earth out of
incomparable depths of philanthropy, which the ministering spirits partake of and
from which demons flee, which Moses saw on the bush and by which Elijah was
taken up from the earth, which the multitude of Your apostles saw pouring out
from Your body and by which Paul was illuminated, turning from a persecutor
into a disciple, which is the power of resurrection and the action of immortality,
the radiance of holy souls and the union of all rational powers.

21. And indeed, for the demonstration of what has been said, there were
temporary, sensory proofs, so that even those not entirely hardened in
stubbornness might be convinced: the child of the synagogue ruler and the
widow's son partook of life by the touch and voice of the Lord; Tabitha from
Joppa and the young man Eutychus from Troas partook, one by Peter's voice, the
other by Paul's touch. What kind of life did they partake of? Was it not that
life-giving life which the Lord possesses, though He did not partake of it? Can
anyone still say that all saints do not partake of the action that is not inherent in
the nature of God and is uncreated, by their own will setting aside the natural and

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being known solely by grace, through which they will demonstrate as much power
as the God-by-nature, incarnated, took from our weakness - for He knew that the
deification of those saved by grace would be commensurate with His humiliation?
How could it be otherwise if they inherit the Kingdom of God, which is "the
sharing by grace of the good that belongs to the nature of God"? He allows them
to enter wholly into Himself and imparts from His own glory and radiance, so
that it is entirely impossible to distinguish Him from them - like transparent air,
wholly illumined by light, or rather like pure verbal gold, refined by the immaterial
Divine fire: "by deification, they became gods and by the prevailing grace of
the Spirit, they appropriated to themselves only the Divine action, so that
the action of God and those worthy of God is one and the same in all
respects," speaking in the words inspired by Maximus, "when God fully and
wholly encompasses the worthy, as befits the Good."

22. For just as all imprints partake of the seal, although each one moves wherever
it is carried, but if you take one and apply it to the seal, it can no longer move
anywhere except by moving in unison with its archetype, having become one with
it except for the difference in material, - so when the Divine image in us returns to
the archetype, what is asked in that wondrous prayer for us is fulfilled: give them,
says Christ, "that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You;
that they also may be one in Us" (John 17:21) in truth. Thus, "he who is
joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. 6:17). Thus, indeed, it is a
great mystery when bodies are joined into one flesh and flow together - but this is
"concerning Christ and the church" (Eph. 5:32). The seal indeed gives itself
entirely to the imprints, and each one receives, according to its capacity, note, the
letters, but also the unity with what imposes the imprint.

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23. Why then do you still fear that there might be complexity in God when His
actions are uncreated, and so they are named? Rather, you should fear lest you
make God created, thinking that His natural actions are created, while the divine
Damascene speaks of two actions in Christ, that "the created reveals the created
nature, and the uncreated expresses the uncreated essence - for it is
necessary that natural manifestations correspond to natures." In agreement
with him, the divine Maximus says: "If you take away the natural will and
the essential action, as well as the Divine and human essence, how can He
be God or man?" What then, are not the properties of the hypostases of the Most
High Trinity uncreated, though there are many of them? Why then are there not
many gods, or is the One not complex because of this? Or will you call these
properties completely merged into one, identical with the essence of God, and
utterly indistinguishable, as you do with action? I fear you might introduce to us a
completely insubstantial and non-existent god: for all these properties by
themselves have no independent existence. And you say they are entirely identical
with the essence of God, and that God is in all respects one and without parts, -
not understanding that He multiplies, remaining one, and divides, remaining
indivisible, and is manifoldly imparted in communions, everywhere remaining
undivided and by His supra-substantial power not separating from His unity.

24. Tell me, does each hypostasis not have many properties? The Father is both
uncaused and cause, parent and begetting - and, of course, the Father possesses all
these properties in an uncreated manner. Will you really consider hypostatic
properties to be completely identical to the hypostasis, as if here there were no
distinction between natural properties and nature, and essential ones from
essence? Therefore, you would call hypostatic properties hypostasis, as you already
call natural ones nature, meaning not similarity but identity? But the fathers did
not speak thus: they call hypostatic properties en-hypostatized, not hypostasis, just

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as they call essential ones not essence but fully existing. Especially when each
hypostasis has many and different properties, how can hypostasis and property be
identical? And since many and different uncreated properties of hypostases have
been manifested, according to your ingenious, lofty, and unrefutable reasoning, it
turns out either that there are many gods or that each Divine hypostasis is
complex. Thus, self-appointed defender of the simplicity that surpasses all
understanding, you have proclaimed God to be super-complex.

25. But, dear one, complexity applies to independently existing elements, not to
those contemplated in another (and this is the common teaching of both external
and ancient sages), and nothing that exists is called complex because of its own
action - for neither is the burning power complex because it also heats, nor the ray
because of the light. Therefore, to you, a worshipper of the imagined
indistinguishability of the uncreated in all respects, it would be more fitting to call
the Trinity of Hypostases complex - for several uncreated Persons merge into one,
and Each is en-hypostatized as independently existing. But in God, although many
natural and hypostatic properties merge into one, none of them exists as an
independent hypostasis, nor did it exist before, nor will it exist later; and none of
these natural properties can belong to any other essence, for they are innate to this
one. The complex, however, is composed of different essences either by mixing or
by non-fused union, in which more than one hypostatic quality is seen, but no
more than one perfect hypostasis in each, because they do not merge and are not
composed; due to them, the complex contains within itself a difference either due
to the diversity of essences or due to the presence of essence and various essential
properties and oppositions, which are contemplated as belonging to it. But not
only to it but also to other natures are they inherently present, which is why all
created things are subject to changes through increase and decrease, addition and
subtraction, action and suffering - and thus experience the disunion of what was

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previously united, which fully demonstrates its divisibility; and everything
divisible must be complex. 1

26. And since in God there is one indivisible essence, there is neither decrease nor
increase, neither addition nor subtraction – hence, there is no difference that
would reveal to us a previous complexity. And "with all the properties that
God possesses," I will say in the words of the great Athanasius, "He possesses
them by nature, not by acquisition," and by them only He acts, but does not
undergo change. Therefore, there can be no opposition in Him that would cause
change, and He alone of all that exists has no essential differences, but has, as has
already been proven, actions through which everything is subject to Him as
matter, even rational creatures, while He contains all and governs all by His word,
more precisely - by His will, that is, by eternal, inexhaustible, and passionless
action. But you will never see anything inherent to Him as innate to anything else.
And for this very reason, He only acts: "No one," says the Evangelist, "is good
but one, that is, God" (Mark 10:18), "blessed and only Potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in
unapproachable light" (1 Tim. 6:15,16). From where then do you derive the
complexity of the Divine of different natures when everything demonstrates His
unity? And Each of the three Hypostases is perfect and distinct, even in the most
ineffable unity, surpassing all understanding and reasoning. But no one can even
conceive of any of Them being separated from the others, lest complexity follow
from this: "As soon as I think of the One," says Gregory the Theologian, "I am
illuminated by the Trinity." Therefore, the union and yet the independence of
the Hypostases here also eliminate complexity.

1
as in the text; in terms of meaning, it seems it should be "no less".

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27. Thus, please, think and guard the simplicity of God in this way, do not
eliminate His natural manifestations as non-existent, do not consider the
unwaning and perpetual light as subservient (arktou), and do not say there are two
Deities, and two Divine Principles, and two goods - of course, the created and the
uncreated: for indeed, this would make two. But since both essence and action are
uncreated together, nothing prevents unity - just as the ray and the sun are one
light. And do not think that the divinity of God and His Kingdom are created, for
they are the natural actions of God. Do not reduce deifying grace to something
created, lest you reduce there also Him who naturally possesses this grace and
bestows it. And do not recklessly argue that the Son of God was born like us; for
how could His birth for us be considered like ours, as if He imparted not from the
Holy Spirit but from something created, or even as if He did not give us the Spirit
of adoption in exchange for our flesh, which He took from the Virgin to become a
human son? And do not make the temples of God - that is, the saints - dwellings
of the created, nor yourself so pitiful as to have not only no Divine and deifying
communion but also no hope of it at all - nor God so powerless that He could not
impart His holy division to the rational creatures He created when they are
purified. Above all, do not make Him insubstantial and non-existent by asserting
His complete identity with actions, which are in themselves insubstantial and
non-existent - for they, of course, are neither essences nor hypostases. And do not
make the supra-substantial, surpassing all naming, inherently inaccessible for
communion, and inexpressible essence of God accessible for communion by
saying that all is uncreated essence. And do not become a second Eunomius,
under the pretext of defending Divine simplicity, asserting like him that all
hypostatic properties pertain to the essence because they are uncreated. And do
not become a Monothelite, considering the Divine nature of Christ devoid of
action, nor a new Sabellius in another guise, thinking that the names of God have
no real content because they supposedly all denote one, and holding to one name

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of essence. So that none of this happens to you, proclaiming the actions of God as
created - for there is never simplicity in empty inventions - believe me, that the
same God contains and does not contain division, unites in difference and differs
in unity, does not separate from Himself in processions and eternally moves in
immobility, divides without separation and gives Himself entirely in communion
like a ray of the sun.

28. But let the great Basil - for if anyone has proclaimed God as one and simple, it
was he - again ascend the podium and clearly show that God does not become
complex because of His actions. "How then," he asks, "will there not be an
absence of complexity in One who is simple by nature? For the expressions
indicating His properties in no way affect the reasoning about His
simplicity; otherwise, everything said about God would proclaim His
complexity, and, apparently, if we want to preserve the notion of
simplicity and indivisibility, then either we will say nothing about God
except that He is ungenerated, and we will avoid calling Him
incorruptible, unchangeable, Creator, Judge, and all the other names we
now use to glorify Him - or what will we do if we accept these names?
Eliminate them, attribute all this to the essence? Then we would show God
not only as complex but also as composed of heterogeneous parts, because
each name signifies something different."

29. Therefore, when you hear from us that essence is one thing, and action is
another, understand that we are speaking about the difference between what each
word signifies, as the great Basil spoke. And also: "If we considered
ungeneratedness as part of the essence, then the reasoning would be that
what consists of different parts is complex; if we consider God's essence as
light, or life, or good, so that the whole of God would entirely be life, and

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entirely light, and entirely good, and ungeneratedness would be like an
accompaniment to life, then how would there not be an absence of
complexity in One who is simple by nature?" And refuting heretics who then
said the same as our recent disputants - that God is simple, and any enumeration
of His properties is supposedly knowledge of the essence, the great Basil says
further that "this is a sophism containing an abyss of absurdities; for with
such a multitude of enumerated properties, do these names pertain to one
essence and are they equivalent to each other?" And also: "We say that we
know the greatness of God, and His power, and His wisdom, but not the
essence itself." Therefore, when you hear from us that in God, essence is one
thing, and power or action is another, know that we are saying that the power or
action of God is somehow known, but the essence is not comprehended by
anyone.

30. The Master of all knowledge, teaching man wisdom, giving wisdom and
correcting the wise, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge" (Col. 2:3), "may give to you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ" (Eph. 1:17–20),
"who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us" (Eph. 3:20), to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen.

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